


On The Subject Of Soulmarks

by theianitor



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, M/M, Mentions others, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-07-27 10:05:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7613863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theianitor/pseuds/theianitor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Niki Lauda has a soulmark, and since learning just how much that sort of thing can mean, he keeps a close eye on anyone else who has one. His many years in Formula 1 offer plenty of opportunities to study the phenomenon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On The Subject Of Soulmarks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Golddisaster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golddisaster/gifts).



> Not exactly what the doctor ordered (so to speak) but I hope it's close enough. :) Heads up for some slightly naughty language. Also, in this AU, James Hunt is alive and well. :)

Niki had never given his soulmark much thought. It was completely random who got one, and he had one – it didn’t matter to him. It had appeared on his sixteenth birthday, and he had always been pleased that it looked more like an N than an A, but that was all the thought he gave it. It was never very well-defined, not like some marks he had seen that were almost jet black with a clear shape and sharp edges.

He focused on racing and everything that came with it. Getting money, getting lap times, getting trophies. He dated now and then, had the occasional fling, but his life was all about racing. Sometimes he wished some of his competitors would focus as much. Case in point; James Hunt, the asshole. The Brit was always surrounded by girls, constantly drinking and partying. If James had applied himself to racing as much as he did to frivolous activities, he could have been unstoppable.

James proudly showed off his mark, an almost sloppy-looking J, so dark it was like somebody had just written it on him with a marker. Niki heard someone joke once that James’ mark would never change, because he was too in love with himself. Then one day Niki realized James had started wearing his sleeves down, rather than rolled up as he usually did. They spoke from time to time, bickered as rivals do, but Niki didn’t feel they were close enough that he could comfortably joke about James’ mark finally catching up with him.

 

Niki never liked going to sponsor-events, but they were a necessity. He was getting dressed when there was a knock at the door. Outside stood James Hunt, and Niki couldn’t help but understand why people flocked to his side. There was an ease about him, even in the suit required for the event he looked relaxed, leaning against the door frame.

“Niki.” He greeted, and let himself in.

“Hunt.” Niki replied. “What do you want?”

“Well you see Niki, I have a problem.” James had walked straight into the room and turned around to look at him. Niki was very aware of still being in his undershirt, and reached for his dress shirt.

“You see, my... mark... has changed.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Niki was startled when James thrust his arm in front of him. The scribbled-looking J was as clear as ever, but behind it was a familiar, faded N.

“Because I think I’ve seen that before, and I think I’ve seen it on you.”

Niki swallowed. James was standing very close but he wasn’t threatening, he was smiling and studying Niki’s face for a reaction. The Austrian realized he hadn’t even looked at his mark in a while, he didn’t care about it... but he was suddenly very unwilling to show it to James.

“Why would you think that would be me?” He asked, trying to sound dismissive. “You get around, you must know someone else with...”

“No, I think it’s you. Because you _fascinate_ me Niki.”

Niki _really_ didn’t want to show his mark to James now. The Brit reached for the dress shirt, still in Niki’s hands. They struggled with it back in forth in silence for a few seconds before James won and threw it behind himself, grabbing Niki’s arm. In the middle of the N-shape Niki had gotten so used to ignoring there was another line, already darker and sharper than his own mark; the unmistakable outline of a J that had never been there before.

“I thought that might be the case.” James grinned.

They stood, just looking at each other. Niki didn’t know what to feel. Had the universe gone completely insane? Was this some kind of sick joke? James however looked genuinely happy.

“You’re still an asshole, Hunt.” Niki finally said. The Brit’s grin got even bigger.

“That may be,” he said, leaning in and brushing his lips against Niki’s. Just a touch, barely even that, and it still felt like an electric shock.

“But I’m all yours.”

After that they started seeing more and more of each other, and Niki grudgingly had to admit that there was something to these soulmarks after all. The relationship developed and it took time, but they made it work. The universe may be insane, but they made each other happy.

Years later James quit racing and went into television, commentating on the sport rather than participating in it. Niki stayed, moving from the driver’s seat of a car to the driver’s seat of a team. They stayed together, and Niki kept an eye out for soulmarks.

 

Soulmarks seemed to come and go. People born certain years were more likely to have them. Niki liked numbers and logic but with this it was mostly just guesswork. It seemed to peak roughly every five years, and in the beginning of the 2000’s he was intrigued to see a lot of young drivers who not only had marks, but proudly displayed them.

Webber came across as quite pragmatic, returning the reporters’ questions about it with his own questions. Would they ask him to hide a scar or a birthmark? Would they openly ask him about a scar or birthmark like they did about this? Would they stop speculating even if he answered? He refused to hide the solid, bold M on the inside of his arm, and they soon grew tired of asking. Button, on the other hand, reminded Niki somewhat of James. He didn’t hide his mark and when asked made flirty remarks about hoping to find the match to it someday, all smirks and winks. Reporters kept asking, just like they had with James, waiting for the day when his mark would start changing.

Alonso, the Spaniard, was passionate about racing and became shy only when reporters asked about his soulmark. It could be, in part, that his English wasn’t very good, but Niki rather suspected he was actually just a romantic at heart. He really wanted to find his soulmate. Niki hoped he knew that even after finding them it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Then there was the Finn, Kimi, who sincerely didn’t care. The K on his arm was faint, thin, and kind of decorative – like a tattoo that had already started fading. He waved off any and all questions about it with monotonous indifference. “If it happens, it happens,” was the longest quote anyone ever got out of him regarding finding his soulmate.

 

Niki kept an eye on the drivers, looking for those who were meant to be winners, drivers that could grow into something truly great. He surreptitiously also kept an eye on their marks, willingly aided by James.

“Admit it, you just like the gossip.” James said one night when Niki pointed out a picture of Alonso, the reigning world champion, and asked if his mark didn’t look like it was changing.

“Relationships can be a distraction. A driver has to keep his eyes on the prize, not let those things get in the way.” Niki defended, but James just laughed at him.

“It does look a bit like it’s filling out.” He finally agreed, looking more closely at the photo. “So maybe the relationship has started?”

“It would seem so.”

 

The theory was that once the relationship between soulmates had begun, even if they were just friends, the mark of the other person would appear in the vicinity of the original mark. In Niki and James’ case the letters had appeared right on top of each other. Some people’s marks darkened over time while some others' faded; there was no way of predicting how the marks would react.

By the time Alonso won his second championship, Niki had noticed that he now favored long sleeves. He had also started dodging questions about his eventual soulmate. The year after, when the season started up again, James told him that some of his colleagues had observed that Alonso and Webber seemed even closer than before – they had always been friendly but now there was something more to it. Webber's mark had indeed changed, but it just had added lines which made it harder to make out, and he still refused to hide it or answer questions about it. When Niki finally saw Alonso and Webber sitting so close together their legs were touching, secretively holding hands under the table, he wasn’t even surprised.

Jenson Button got engaged to some model-or-other, a very pretty girl but Niki thought there was something not quite right about it. Six months in to the engagement he realized what it took the gossip magazines a few more months to catch up with: Button’s mark hadn’t changed at all. It was theorized that because his fiancée didn’t have a mark, his would stay the same. Both Button and his bride-to-be laughed it off, stating they were very much in love, but he still started covering his mark up whenever he was in public.

 

It was a chaotic year with plenty going on. It wasn’t until the end of it that Niki found he should have kept a closer eye on Sebastian Vettel, a young, wide-eyed German boy. There was something about him. Despite his young age he had the makings of a winner, the way he soaked up information and learned with every rookie mistake... also, he had a soulmark. He didn’t display it but James had found a picture. A clear, slightly slanted S, about two inches long, adorned the inside of his left arm.

“He draws on it sometimes.” James said when he showed Niki the picture.

“Draws on it?”

“Yeah. He said he did it when he was a kid. Mind you he still looks like a little kid to me...” Niki snorted with laughter. Lately James had been getting more and more self-conscious about his age, especially when dealing with the younger drivers on the grid.

“Shut up,” James snapped, “anyway, he drew wheels on it, made it look like a little car, because he said racing is his one true love.”

Niki raised his eyebrows in surprise. It was a childish thing to do, but at the same time he couldn’t help but be a little taken aback by it. James stubbed out his cigarette.

“All of that is off the record of course, so don’t go spreading it around. I’m off to bed.” He got up and patted Niki on the head. “Night Rat.”

“Good night, asshole.”

 

The years flew past. James stopped fretting so much about getting older and learned to enjoy the perks of his age and status. Niki moved up the food-chain, trading one team for another but keeping himself in racing. It was his life – it was _their_ life, and neither of them wanted it any other way.

Niki’s interest in soulmarks persisted. He watched as the Finn, then Hamilton, and then Button all took the title of world champion. He heard of Button’s relationship crashing and burning, the Brit going back to showing the still lone mark on his arm. Niki saw Alonso and Webber solidify their relationship and finally stop hiding altogether, their matching marks photographed to the point of no longer being news. He kept an eye on Sebastian, who got better and better until he got his name on a world championship trophy of his own. The young German was incredibly focused, immensely talented... and had started covering up his mark.

“He doesn’t talk about it anymore, not to anyone, but it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?” James said coolly when Niki brought it up. The huge end-of-year party wasn’t really interesting to either one of them, but since they were required to make an appearance they had opted for strengthening themselves with a few quiet drinks at the hotel bar first.

“What is?”

“It’s obviously shifting, isn’t it? Maybe he’s not quite comfortable with what it’s changing into.”

“Is that your professional journalist’s opinion?” Niki scoffed. James tossed a peanut into the air and caught it in his mouth.

“No. But that’s what I did.”

 

It didn’t take long for Niki to realize the truth in James’s words. At the start of the season Sebastian, who was still diligently hiding his mark, kept hovering around Button. Niki wondered why Sebastian kept his mark so well hidden – Button still didn’t, and his mark hadn’t changed. The marks usually seemed to start shifting at the same time. It seemed they weren’t meant to be, regardless of what Sebastian might feel. Despite his obvious distraction Sebastian won the first race of the season, but Niki worried that if he kept staring at Button with hearts in his eyes like that he would put his racing success in jeopardy.

By the second race Niki got to witness something he had never seen before. Button and Sebastian ended up on the podium together and there was the traditional celebration, spraying of champagne, and posing for pictures. At one point however Sebastian locked eyes with Button, still with that love-struck expression that Niki feared meant he was all too distracted from the track. Button froze, staring at the younger man... then he winced, his hand grabbing at his left arm like something had stung him.

That night, strolling through the paddock on his way to his car, Niki heard someone talking in lowered voices between two of the motorhomes. He and James had snuck around enough in their younger days that he didn’t have to think too hard about what might be going on. While he had missed the actual conversation by the time he peeked around the corner, he did catch Sebastian and Button kissing. A few days later James showed him a picture of Button’s arm, where the usual squiggly J was now joined by a smaller, slanted S. Both Jenson and Sebastian kept hiding their marks however.

“I don’t know why they bother,” James commented later in the year, when the two drivers were on the podium together again. “The way they’re looking at each other you’d have to be blind to miss it.”

 

Niki thought he should have known that Kimi wouldn’t let a little thing like nature get in the way of what he wanted. The Finn had been dating a beautiful girl for a while and they soon got engaged. Reporters in the first press conference Kimi attended that year heartlessly commented on how Kimi’s first marriage had failed, and how he was again intending to marry a girl without a soulmark.

Kimi rolled up his sleeves in stony silence, displaying a tattoo covering the entire inside of his left arm – including his mark. Cameras flashed and clicked and questions flooded in, but the Finn just sat there, looking at the reporters, the other five drivers in the conference forgotten but all staring at Kimi.

“Now I have no mark just like my girlfriend and there is no need for any more questions.” It was the last thing he ever said about it. The wedding-pictures that surfaced about a year later were rather beautiful, Niki thought, and Kimi and his bride both looked very happy.

 

The first day of a new season was always the same. People everywhere, confusion, initial chaos. It was like the first day of school, magnified by about a million. Niki sat in the shade, absentmindedly scratching his arm, looking out over the paddock. His mark was still the same, like time had stopped as far as it was concerned the first time he and James kissed. The cars around him were different, co-workers and drivers came and went, new tracks popped up and others were taken off the calendar, but some things just never changed.

His red cap was suddenly snatched off of his head and he grabbed for it, cursing.

“Now now, think of the children Niki dear,” an English accent scolded from above. James sat down next to him, spinning the cap on his finger.

“Give it back.”

James grinned and pointed to his cheek. Grumbling, Niki leaned over and gave him a short peck. James looked incredibly pleased and put the cap on Niki’s head.

“You’re welcome,” the Brit said merrily.

Niki watched two young men in matching clothing cautiously eyeing each other. They both had marks, plainly visible due to the short sleeves of their team shirts – one had a slim, curvy C, the other a blocky letter that looked more like a symbol of some sort. He thought to himself that the C would fit neatly into the empty space of the other boy’s mark.

“You’re a sappy, romantic old fart.” James accused with a grin, seeing what Niki was looking at.

“And you are still an asshole.” Niki said with a smile.

“And I’m still all yours.” James replied.

Some things truly never changed.

 

\-- The End --

**Author's Note:**

> This was all in good fun, as usual! Thanks for making me try out something new. :)  
> Thanks for the read! <3


End file.
